Graduate transfers have become all the rage in college basketball. While some coaches have used the rule to their benefit (hello, Dana Altman), there are others who despise it.

The gist: If players wrap up their undergraduate degree before their eligibility ends, they are free to transfer to another institution to play immediately and complete their eligibility.

Syracuse Jim Boeheim says there is a no-one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to transfer rules. Too many different circumstances apply. (AP Photo)

That’s why players like Memphis’ Tarik Black, UNLV’s Mike Moser (who committed this week to the Ducks) and others like them are in such high demand. Instead of coaches having to wait a season for those players, the benefits can be had immediately.

We've even seen the Wisconsin football team use the rule to land two quarterbacks in the last two seasons—Russell Wilson and Danny O'Brien.

The end result has produced some unintended consequences, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz.

"The rule was for if a kid really wanted a different academic program,” Boeheim told ESPN.com. “Now it has gotten to be a strictly playing situation."

In addition to that, others are seeking immediate eligibility through other means. The most used one is transferring to a school within 100 miles of an ill loved one. Or in the case of Rutgers, where players were allowed to transfer freely in the wake of Mike Rice’s firing, that’s another out.

All of which has created an aura of free agency in college basketball, and some coaches, including Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan, don’t like it.

"All they're doing is looking at curriculum, finding a program that a school doesn't have,” Ryan told ESPN.com. “Are they really trying to get a master's degree? Or is it, 'Maybe my team isn't as good and we lost a lot and I want to be in the NCAA tournament next year and …' There's a market out there for this. You take guys through summer school and give them every academic advantage and then they graduate and then they can just go to another school."

While this transfer situation has been an exploited loophole, consider this unintended positive consequence: These players who worked to get their degree early now have a piece of paper that can only help them the rest of their lives. And if they can find a better situation for themselves to raise their future profile or reach the success they hope to achieve, we shouldn’t hold them back.

No one is holding out coaches for one season before they leave their student-athletes for the next best job.

The situation figures to remain murky, because as Boeheim points out to ESPN.com, there is a no-one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to transfer students. Every player's circumstances are different.